


The French Mistake 2.0; or, Gabriel Being A Dick

by LPCollins



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - The French Mistake (Supernatural) Fusion, Dimension Travel, Inspired by Episode: s06e15 The French Mistake, M/M, Post-Episode: s06e15 The French Mistake
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-07
Updated: 2019-04-07
Packaged: 2019-10-19 21:44:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17609576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LPCollins/pseuds/LPCollins
Summary: "Hey baby, I got you flowers.""CAS?!""Ahh yes, because that never gets old, Jared. Anyway, how was your day, baby?""Me? ... Dude, I married fake Cas.""Actually it's Misha, you know, just in case you didn't read the marriage license when you signed."*an ongoing one-shot if that's a thing... will be continued as I get on with it*





	The French Mistake 2.0; or, Gabriel Being A Dick

**Author's Note:**

  * For [YellowSniper64](https://archiveofourown.org/users/YellowSniper64/gifts).



> Because that "Oh hell yes" convinced me to really make something out of this ;)
> 
> I don't care if this is done who knows how many times before, I'm still gonna do it anyway.  
> Inspired by [this post on Tumblr](http://somehuntersloveangels.tumblr.com/post/53546395475/carry-on-my-wayward-butt).

Sam and Dean were running for their lives, being chased by a couple of very angry hellhounds. If they could just make it to the car, they'd be alright. Just to the car, that was it.

The barking behind them became a little bit closer again and Sam could hear his brother curse under his breath. They rounded a corner and there she was, exactly where they'd left her. Baby. Dean made a sprint for it and Sam followed suit. They reached the car, threw open the doors and jumped in.

Except that they didn't jump into the Impala.

Suddenly the two men were in the backseat of what appeared to be a pretty big car with tainted windows, driving along with the sunset. They exchanged a panicked look that seemed to be screaming the same question. _What the hell just happened?_

"Dude," Dean mumbled, too shocked to say anything else.

Sam motioned for him to remain quiet. Not only was there a stranger in the front seat, something about the highway they were taking seemed awfully familiar. Of course they'd seen plenty of roads with their way of living but this one was different...

Before he could figure it out, his brother slapped his upper arm and pointed at a sign on the side of the road. It said, _Exit 13 Taylor Way Vancouver_.

No matter how much Dean would like to freak out, he decided it might be better to stay calm for once. He was in the back of an unknown car, what was he gonna do? Jump out? So he took a deep breath and went for the driver instead. "Excuse me? Where are we exactly?"

The broad guy looked at him in the rearview mirror. "Just need to cross the bridge. You know it's not far from here, Jensen."

 _"Jensen?"_ Dean mouthed to his brother.

And that's when it hit Sam. He patted his pockets, looking for his wallet, and when he'd found it, he took out his driver's license. Exactly what he'd expected.

He showed it to Dean. "Jared Padalecki," he whispered. "Vancouver. Jensen. That ring any bells to you?"

Dean's eyes grew big before he groaned in despair. "Balthazar."

"Except that he's dead," Sam said as quietly as possible. He really didn't want to freak out their driver.

"Awesome," Dean mumbled. "We're trapped in freaking Hollywood Life _again_ and we don't even know how it happened."

Sam sighed. "Calm down, we'll fix it. Just... act normal."

His brother grumbled a bit more but then the both of them fell silent, wondering where they would end up this time. If Sam remembered correctly, this Jared Padalecki was married to Ruby's alter ego. Yeah, that was weird. If they were lucky, maybe they'd just go to his place again. Not that he was that excited about it but at least they knew how to handle that.

Ten more minutes passed before the car pulled up into the driveway of a cozy house. A house that neither of them recognized as Jared Padalecki's.

"There you go, Jensen," their driver said. "Home sweet home. You guys have a nice evening."

"Thanks, you too," Sam politely replied, realizing just in time he didn't even know the guy's name. Guess they'd have to find out about that later.

Dean quickly said his goodbyes and got out.

Sam smiled a last time before following him. "Dean. Dean!" he uttered, while catching up to his brother, who was fervently walking up to the porch. "What the hell are you doing?"

"What am I doing?" Dean exclaimed and Sam could tell he was a lot more pissed off then he'd let on before. "Well, apparently this is my home, so I'm gonna go in and figure out how to get out of this mess! Again!"

"You think I don't wanna go home?" Sam huffed.

"Who knows, maybe you wanted another round with fake Ruby."

"Seriously?" he commented while Dean was patting his pockets like crazy.

"Where the hell are my keys?!"

"How am I supposed to know?" his brother noted. "Why do you even think you'd have a key?"

Dean spread his arms. "I live here, don't I? Shouldn't I have a key then?"

Alright, so maybe he did have a point there. "I guess," Sam shrugged.

"Fine," Dean grumbled and he started to look around. "If I were a spare key, where would I hide?"

There weren't any plants on the porch, so of course he checked the doormat first. There was nothing underneath that though.

Dean was already starting to curse when Sam noticed something. Next to the door was a black marble tile with the doorbell and _M_ _& J_ printed on it.

"Hey," he said. "Check this out."

His brother looked up and came to stand next to him. "M and J?" he frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Pretty obvious, don't you think?" Sam answered. "Looks like Jensen Ackles is married. Or at least got a steady relationship."

"Well, let's see who it is then," Dean said and before Sam could object, he rang the bell.

For a couple of seconds they waited in silent anticipation. When nothing seemed to happen, they exchanged a look.

"Okay, what now?" Sam asked.

"Why do you ask me?"

He suppressed a sigh and realized he'd probably have to fix this by himself. He looked the tile over again and let his finger slide over the letters. It was only when he touched the lower semi-circle of the ampersand that he noticed. It was loose. Sam pulled his fingers away in surprise and a frown formed on his face when he took a step closer to it to investigate it further. He carefully touched the circle-like part again and discovered the slight edge that separated it from the rest of the tile. It moved a bit without issue, so Sam tried to pull it. It came out perfectly smoothly, and sure enough it turned out to serve as the bow of a key.

He laughed in surprise and held the key up to Dean. "Look at this."

Dean pulled up his eyebrows. "Did you really just pull that out of the wall?"

"Yeah," Sam said, shaking his head. He still could hardly believe it. "Whoever made this must be incredibly handy."

"Maybe I made it," Dean grinned.

"Right," Sam huffed and then turned to open the door.

They got in without further problems and walked into the hallway.

Dean's eyebrows shot up in surprise when he entered the house. "At least I have a nice place," he mumbled.

He wasn't wrong. The place was pretty modern, with a couple peculiar touches to it. There was a series of hooks on the wall that looked handmade, all of them from different materials. The walls were white but the ceiling was painted with organic patterns. It was only details but they gave a whole different dimension to the space.

They walked down the hall and entered a big kitchen with a living room attached to it. Here too there were these little creative elements to the interior. The Winchesters had only just started looking around and taking it all in when they heard the front door being unlocked again. They looked at each other and at once started back to the hallway. Whoever was at the door could either be dangerous or capable of explaining a lot of this craziness to them.

The both of them were washed over with relief when the door opened and Castiel walked in. Except for one little confusing detail that is...

"Hey baby, I got you flowers," Cas said in a voice that was very... _not Cas_ , and he held up a bouquet of colorful flowers.

Dean's jaw dropped and he remained speechless. This was very much not what he expected. _No no no.. Oh god, please be Cas, please be Cas..._

Luckily Sam didn't seem to have lost his tongue. "CAS?!"

"Cas" gave them a little laugh and shook his head. "Ahh yes, because that never gets old, Jared." And then he turned his eyes to Dean. "Anyway, how was your day, baby?"

"Me?" Dean managed to get out in disbelief. As soon as realization kicked in, he turned towards his brother. "Dude, I married fake Cas," he said, pointing at the guy that was most certainly not Cas.

"Actually it's Misha," fake Cas corrected him. "You know, just in case you didn't read the marriage license when you signed."

Sam was the first one to decide to just roll with it. They would have to if they didn't want to make a scene. "Right. Misha. Of course," he was quick to say.

The Misha guy smiled softly and walked up to Dean. "You are lucky I'm glad you're home." And then he handed Dean the flowers and kissed him on the cheek. _He kissed him on the cheek._ Dean immediately started blushing like a teenage girl, looking at the flowers with big eyes, and Sam was doing his very best to hide a big grin behind his hand.

If Misha noticed at all, he didn't mention it. "I saw the spare key is gone. Did you use it?" he just said and took off his jacket.

"Uhm... yeah, I-I forgot mine," Dean stuttered.

Misha laughed and put his coat on one of the hooks before walking away towards the kitchen. "That's new. Normally that's my job. Jared, you wanna join us for dinner?"

Honestly Sam didn't know how or where else to find food, so he might as well take advantage of the situation. "Yeah sure, thanks," he answered and then motioned for Dean to follow him to the kitchen as well. It still took his brother a couple of seconds to completely snap out of it, but then he reluctantly strode after Sam.

Misha was already diving into the fridge, gathering all kinds of ingredients. "So, you never answered," he said, closing the fridge and getting out a frying pan from one of the cupboards. "How did it go on set?"

The Winchesters exchanged a look. How did it go on set?

"You know..." Dean started. "Just the usual."

Sam just nodded in agreement. If they just could keep on giving these vague answers, maybe this could actually work.

"Great," Misha said, turning towards the counter to start cutting the vegetables. "Jared, how did Rich do? Too bad I'm not in this episode and have to miss it. It would've been nice to have all of us work together another time. You guys didn't go too hard on him, did you?"

Sam looked at his brother in panic. He had no idea who this "Rich" was. Dean returned the gesture just as desperately and shrugged.

Vague answers. "Yeah no, he was good," he decided on.

Misha laughed at that and for a moment Sam was scared he'd said something wrong again. "Right," the other guy said, shaking his head. "You forget I know exactly what the two of you are like on set. I mean, I've been through enough of your pranks myself." He turned around, found them still at the threshold and pulled up his eyebrows. "Are you really still standing there? Come on, Jared, you know you can make yourself at home. Oh and honey, I'd put those in a vase if I were you," he added, pointing at the flowers.

Dean looked down at the bouquet he'd forgotten he was holding. "Right. Vase." He looked around the kitchen. Where the hell was he supposed to find a vase?

His apparently husband rolled his eyes at the clear forlornness on his face. "Bottom cupboard at the far left. Seriously, what would you do without me?" he muttered, turning back to the food.

"Yeah, of course," Dean quickly said, making his way to the cupboard Misha had indicated.

Still feeling very uncomfortable but not knowing what else to do, Sam went to sit down at the kitchen table.

His brother successfully found the vase and even realized he should probably fill it with water first. Tap. Misha was standing right next to the tap. And Dean really didn't want to get that close to the man who had just kissed him on the cheek. He looked from the vase to the tap, to Misha, to his brother, and back to the vase. Yeah, he was so screwed.

Sam silently motioned for him to just fill the damn vase. They were already behaving strange enough as it was.

So Dean inwardly took a deep breath and went for it. He stood right beside Misha and filled the vase, keeping an eye on the man next to him. Just in case. You never knew. Once the vase was full, he placed the flowers in and hastily made his way to the kitchen table, where he put them down and went to sit next to his brother.

"Jared, since my husband is apparently not going to ask, would you like something to drink?" Misha went on.

"Uhm... yeah, sure... I guess," Sam let out.

When no one made a move, Misha looked at them over his shoulder. "Jensen."

Dean just blinked. Oh right, that was him. He cleared his throat. "Right. Beer?"

Sam gave him a quick nod and Dean got up to walk towards the fridge, praying that that still was where beers were kept. To his relief there were a couple of bottles in the door. Dean grabbed two of them before shutting the fridge. _Family Business Beer Co._ , they read. Huh. Funny. He'd never heard of that brand.

He went to sit in his chair again and handed one to Sam. They both cracked their bottles open and Dean took a big gulp because dammit, he needed one. As soon as the liquid entered his mouth, he made a face. "What is this stuff?"

Misha laughed. "Very funny, Jensen."

He hadn't been kidding but okay? He looked over at his brother, who just shrugged and took a pull from his beer as well. Sam actually didn't think it was that bad. Beer was the least of their problems right now anyway.

Dean seemed to be thinking the same thing because they exchanged another look and Dean nodded. They could do this. Maybe.

"So anyways, I take it he's still on set?" Misha asked.

Or maybe not.

"Who?" Dean carefully asked.

"Rich." Misha turned around and looked at Sam. "I'm assuming that's why you're here, at least."

"I guess yeah..." Sam answered hesitantly and drank from his beer again to give himself a bit more time to think.

"You guess?" Misha snickered. "I'd think you'd know where your own husband is."

And that's when Sam chocked on his drink. If he hadn't put his hand over his mouth just in time, he would've sprayed beer all over the kitchen floor.

Dean was looking at him with a little smile and pulled-up eyebrows, as if to say 'hey look, I'm not the only one who's married to a dude'.

Misha had turned around at the sudden noise. "You okay?" he asked with a confused frown and tilted his head a little, a gesture that reminded Dean way too much of Castiel.

"Yeah no... just uhm... went down the wrong way," Sam waved it off. He was really gonna have to find out who Rich was. Preferably sooner than later.

"Is he gonna direct another episode?" Misha said, continuing on the vegetables.

 _Director. Okay. I can do director._ "He... uhm, he doesn't know yet."

Misha turned around in surprise. "Why not? I thought he enjoyed it so much?"

Sam really wanted to facepalm himself. Clearly the wrong answer. "Oh no, yeah of course," he quickly tried to correct himself. "He does, he just, uhm, isn't sure... when. Yet." He prayed to Chuck that was a reasonable reply and that I wouldn't backfire at him.

Luckily Misha nodded understandingly and threw a portion of the vegetables in a pot. "Yeah, I can imagine. With everything going on..."

Sam decided it would probably be better to not ask what exactly Misha was talking about. He was afraid he'd find out sooner or later anyway.

It didn't seem to matter because Misha turned back to Dean. "Oh by the way, Vicki called. She said West and Maison can come over next week."

Dean's eyes grew big and he looked at Sam for support. Unfortunately, his brother was just as clueless. "Okay?" he tried.

Misha huffed at him. "Okay? Jeez, thanks, Jensen. I thought you'd be excited."

"No no no," Dean quickly attempted to fix it. "I am, I just..." When he didn't know how to finish that sentence, he almost carefully shrugged.

His husband shook his head and put butter in the frying pan. "What is it with you? You've been acting weird from the moment I got home. Did something happen at work?"

Dean opened his mouth, to just close it again when he didn't know what to say. "No," he eventually said. "Just... you know... didn't sleep that much I guess." He even forced a smile to go with it.

Misha pulled up his eyebrows at him. "I know. I was there. But you sure as hell weren't complaining."

Sam snorted and Dean's jaw dropped. He'd had sex with fake Cas. He suddenly felt gross.

They spent the rest of that weird evening mostly in quietude and let Misha do the talking. Or in other words, the man would ramble on about subjects they didn't understand a thing about and they would nod and make agreeing sounds as if they did. Luckily, Jensen Ackles' husband turned out to be quite the good cook, so the Winchesters had an excuse to focus their attention on the food.

"Any more wine, Jared?" Misha offered after dinner, taking a sip from his own glass of red.

"No, thanks," Sam answered with a friendly smile. In the last couple of hours he'd come to like the guy. Sure, Misha wasn't Cas but he was nice and funny. He seemed like a good person.

"Yeah, I've had plenty too," Dean added. He really wasn't a wine type of person. Apparently Jensen was, or at least didn't mind the drink. But it contained alcohol and Dean had needed his alcohol.

Misha laughed a little. "You think you can still make it to Jared's?"

The brothers exchanged a look. Even if they remembered where Jared Padalecki's house had been last time, clearly this was another universe. Unless Sam's alter ego had divorced that Genevieve girl and decided he was more into guys after all.

"I- uhm..." Dean started. "I don't know, actually."

Misha's eyebrows shot up. "You don't know?"

Dean just shrugged in response, afraid he'd screw something up again.

"Jensen, I've had four glasses, I can't drive him!"

"I... could... call a cab?" Sam offered. _If I knew my address..._

Misha let out an annoyed sigh. "No, it's fine... Just... If Rich's not home yet, you can crash here if you want."

"Thanks, C- Misha," Sam nodded and offered a genuine smile. He was glad Dean and him wouldn't be separated over the night.

"Alright." Misha got up and started piling the plates. "Baby, could you start on the dishes? I got a GISH announcement to post and then I'll join you."

"GISH?" Dean asked before he could stop himself.

"Yes...?" Misha replied in a questioning voice.

Sam kicked his brother below the table and Dean quickly cleared his throat. "Yeah. GISH. Of course."

Misha gave a slow, uncertain nod and then disappeared to another room.

"Jesus fucking Christ," Dean groaned as soon as he was gone and he dropped back his head. "This is a complete disaster."

Sam let out an exhausted breath and stood up to take the dishes back to the kitchen. His brother followed after him and they both took a spot at the sink. Honestly, dishes seemed like the one thing they wouldn't screw up at the moment.

"Sam, we gotta get outta here," Dean muttered and turned on the hot water.

"I know," his brother answered. "We just gotta be patient until we get a chance to do some research. Then hopefully we can find out what exactly is going on and how to fix it."

Dean angrily threw a fork into the water. "Well yeah, what if we can't? Balthazar's dead so obviously it isn't him. So who is? Also, we got dropped in the middle of the highway so there's no way we'll be able to find that exact same spot again. And I don't know about you but I don't remember the ingredients to the spell. If it's even a spell this time."

"We'll figure it out, alright?" Sam said. "We always do."

The older Winchester grumbled a bit more before Misha walked back in and joined them at the sink. "Jared, you really don't have to help, you know."

Sam shrugged. "What, no, that's alright. Happy to help."

Misha gave him a small, curious smile. "I don't know what happened on set today but I'm liking what it's done to you."

He was speechless for a moment. He knew it was meant as a compliment but it just made Sam worry he wasn't exactly portraying Jared too well. He really needed to learn more about the man that was supposed to be playing him, not the other way around.

"Wait, are you saying you don't like what it's done to me?" Dean interrupted his thoughts and Sam's jaw dropped. Was his brother being _jealous_ now?

Misha laughed as if he'd thought the same thing before smiling at Dean in a way that made Sam feel like he was third-wheeling the entire kitchen. "You know I love you," Misha said, his fingers gently caressing Dean's shoulder and trailing down his arm. "But let's face it, you have been acting crazy this entire evening." And then he did _the thing_ again, kissing Dean on the cheek, being it a little closer to the corner of his mouth this time. "Now come on, let's finish this so I can take you upstairs."

And oh boy, if that didn't leave Dean a blushing, babbling mess for the rest of the dishes.

When they were finally done, Misha took Dean's hand and started dragging him to what Dean could only guess was the bedroom. He started protesting a bit but what was he supposed to say? 'Dude, I'm not really your husband, just the character he plays'? Yeah, that didn't sound like the most bright idea.

Not that it mattered since Misha ignored him anyway. "Jared, you know where the guest room is!" was the only thing he said before the two of them left the kitchen.

Of course Sam didn't know where the guest room was. But he honestly didn't really care. He'd figure it out but right now he was too busy being amused at the very awkward situation Dean would find himself in within minutes. He should probably feel sorry for his brother. Then again, karma apparently really was a son of a bitch.

~~~

The next morning Dean stumbled down the stairs, exhausted from the terrible night of sleep he'd had. He'd somehow managed to prevent any sex happening but there'd been no way of escaping a couple of kisses and an entire night of snuggling. And now his body just felt tingly and touchy and plain on weird all over.

When he entered the kitchen, his brother was already there, fully dressed. After a lot of wondering around and praying he wouldn't accidentally end up in the main bedroom, Sam had finally found the guest room last night and even the guest bathroom and some spare clothes. Looked like Jared Padalecki had crashed here more than once. So now he was ready to go, sipping from a cup of coffee at the table while reading the newspaper. As soon as Dean came in, looking all groggy and grumpy, Sam looked up and had trouble suppressing a smirk. "G'morning."

"Shut your face," Dean mumbled and walked over to the counter to pour himself a cup of his own. He'd never needed it more.

No matter how tempted Sam was to ask about how he slept, he knew they had more important things to worry about and changed the subject. "You wanna get ready? Misha's gone for a run but he told me some guy named Clif called to say he will be picking us up in fifteen. He would've told you but he said you were still asleep."

"Yeah, I pretended till I heard him leave the house," Dean sighed, dropping down on a chair. There'd been only so much not-Cas he could take this early. "Did he happen to mention where we're supposed to go?"

Sam shrugged. "Set, I'd say."

His older brother pulled up his eyebrows in disbelief. "And you're planning on actually doing that? Sam, we're _not_ gonna go to set!"

"Why not? Maybe we can find a lead!" Sam protested. "If not there, then maybe on our way over. That's where we were dropped."

"Did you forget that not only we don't have a clue how that stuff works, we're also terrible at acting?"

"Well, you were," Sam muttered.

"Not to mention we don't have any lines and then there's that stupid director guy that apparently named Bobby after himself getting in our way!"

Sam let out a little laugh. "Well, that shouldn't be a problem anymore, my supposed husband being the new director."

As Dean finished his drink and got up, Sam added with a pensive frown, "I can't stop wondering who he is... We didn't meet anyone named Rich last time, right?"

"Not that I remember," Dean shrugged. "But then I barely remembered Misha." There was still a weird tone in his voice as he said the name. He just couldn't get used to it. "Anyway, I'm gonna get changed so I guess you'll find out soon enough."

Twenty minutes later they were on their way to the set. The drive was mostly quiet, being it because Sam and Dean were keeping an eye out for anything that might be of use to them or because they simply didn't know what to say in the presence of a complete stranger. Okay, they knew the guy was named Clif now but that wasn't exactly enough to make it easier to have a conversation. Of course Clif didn't know that.

"You guys are quiet," he asked after a while. "Nervous about the weekend?"

Dean was getting really tired of giving vague answers to questions he didn't understand. Luckily his brother jumped in.

"A bit, yeah," Sam said with a friendly smile.

Clif gave them a worried look through the rearview mirror. "Why? You've done it so many times, the fans adore you, everyone's coming over and you don't even have to do any traveling yourselves this time."

Okay, what the hell was happening this weekend? Sam let out a nervous laugh. "Yeah, that's true. Thanks, Clif."

The Winchesters were incredibly relieved when they finally arrived on set. Even though that probably wouldn't be any better. They said goodbye to Clif and walked towards the big building that they actually recognized from last time.

"Thank god some things haven't changed," Dean mumbled and Sam couldn't agree more.

"Alright," he said. "You go find that trailer of yours again. We need a place to do research. I'll go in to check if the spot from last time's still there and see if there's anything else to find out."

Dean nodded. "Sounds like a plan. I'll look for more in the trailer. Come find me when you're done."

"Good, I'll see you in twenty, max," Sam said and then the brothers went their separate ways.

Sam entered the building with the built sets and immediately noticed they were completely different from last time. He could actually look into a pretty big one and... _holy shit_. Sam's jaw dropped as he walked up to it and passed the threshold. He was in the bunker. The only home they'd had in years and it was here, exactly the same except for the lamps and camera's placed all around and hung up on the ceiling. Still, it was... it was _theirs_ in a way, and to see it like this, dressed up as a set for some stupid TV show... It made Sam feel comforted and angry at the same time.

He took a deep breath and told himself to just ignore it. The sooner he figured out what exactly was going on, the sooner they would be back home, in their own bunker, without stupid lighting equipment. With that thought in mind he walked out of the set and followed the sound of voices coming from somewhere else in the building. When he rounded another corner, he finally found the source, a group of people, some of them talking to each other, others walking around the sets with a clipboard or other equipment. He was just about to approach them, ask if they maybe noticed something strange on set yesterday, when one of the guys started walking into the direction he was coming from. The man was a lot shorter than Sam and wore a white and blue baseball cap which made it impossible to see his face, being too focused on a bundle of papers in his hand that Sam assumed was a script. It was only when he did finally look up, that Sam froze in his steps. A fraction of a second was all it took for him to recognize that face, even behind the slight beard and heavy-framed glasses.

"Gabriel," Sam basically breathed out before he could stop himself.

And to his enormous surprise the man turned to him and said, "Hi there, Sammy."

Sam's eyes grew big. "It's you. But... how... you're dead."

"Well, you know me," Gabriel shrugged.

A broad grin appeared on Sam's face. _Finally, something that made sense..._ "Wait, did you do this? Are you behind this?"

Gabriel laughed at him. "Woah, don't remember reading that yet. Guess I have a bit more studying to do before next week. But hey, so good of you to take them through in advance."

"Wait... what?" Sam frowned.

Before he'd even properly processed what Gabriel had said, the archangel started talking again. "Oh hey, is Jensen in his trailer yet? At least I'm assuming you two love birds got here together," he said and even winked with it. And then he walked right on by. "Go get him for me, would ya? We're starting in half an hour!"

Sam watched him go in utter confusion. Okay, so obviously that wasn't Gabriel but the actor playing him. But holy shit if the two of them didn't appear to be exactly alike. It was freaking Sam out, really. Sure, he'd met Misha but that was different. Misha and Cas were different, very different. Cas was pretty quiet and kept to himself, Misha was as outgoing as could be. Cas didn't understand sexual puns, Misha loved sexual puns. Cas was awkward with social conventions and personal space because he didn't understand those either, Misha just deliberately ignored them. Even their voices were different. But Gabriel and... whoever his actor was... just the way they both talked and acted alone... they could've been the same person.

Weird. This was all getting way too weird.

He turned around and left the building to look for his brother. After some more wandering around the place, he spotted two identical trailers. _Oh thank Chuck..._ Sam approached the first one and knocked on the door. When he didn't get a reply, he walked over to the next to do the same. After some rumbling sounds, the door opened and Dean let out a relieved sigh.

"Thank god, it's you," his brother said, letting him in and closing the door again. "I don't know if I can deal with one more of _Jensen's_ friends."

Sam huffed. "Well, you're gonna have to. Guess who I just ran into? Gabriel."

Dean was just about to sit down but stopped dead in his tracks at that. "Gabriel? _Gabriel_ Gabriel?"

"Yes. I mean, well no, not our Gabriel of course. The actor," Sam tried to explain.

"Crap," his brother mumbled and dropped down. "Could've used ourselves an archangel."

Sam joined him at the small table. "Yeah, you don't say. Although they really look alike. Seriously, it's creepy. Anyway, what about you? Find anything?"

The older Winchester made a face. "You mean besides sappy pictures of fake me and fake Cas? Only this." And with that he leaned back and grabbed a laptop from the coffee table. "Option of fingerprint recognition, thank god. Never could've guessed this freak's password."

Sam was filled with relief. If they had a computer, that was the first step of their journey figuring this out. "Great. Let's do some researching."

Dean nodded and unlocked the laptop, opening the web browser and turning the screen so Sam could follow along. "Alright, let's see... Where do we start?"

"Hey, uhm... you think we could do a quick search for that Rich guy?"

His brother pulled up an eyebrow at him.

"What, I can't be curious about the man I'm apparently _married to_?"

"Alright, alright," Dean said, raising his hands in surrender. "What do we know about the guy?"

Sam let out a mocking laugh. "Apart from the fact that his name's Rich and he's the director of this show? Nothing."

"Fine, let's lead with that then. What's this show called again?"

His little brother got that pensive look on his face. " _Super... natural_? Was that it?"

Dean laughed. "Crappy names, right, yeah now I remember. Okay." He started typing. "'Supernatural'... 'director'... Oh hey look, suggestions say 'Jensen Ackles' and 'Misha Collins'. Huh, guess we're so good they let us direct some too," he grinned. "Alright, and 'Rich'... enter."

Needless to say Sam and Dean's jaws dropped and their eyes nearly jumped out of their sockets at the automated Wikipedia card popping up, picture included.

"Oh my god," was all Dean could say. And after a couple of seconds, "Dude."

Sam just kept staring at the picture. This couldn't be true...

" _Dude._ "

"I know," he managed to get out.

"But _dude_."

"Yeah Dean, _I know_."

That was when his brother burst out in laughter. And kept on laughing for what felt like an eternity. Or at least it did to Sam, who still had trouble dealing with the picture on the screen, the picture of the guy he'd talked to only minutes ago.

"And here I thought marrying fake Cas was bad," Dean snickered. "I mean, come on man, Gabriel? _Gabriel_?"

"There's nothing wrong w-" Sam started but then stopped himself. "First of all, that's not Gabriel and second, I'm not Jared!"

Dean just snorted. "Well yeah, but still..." He opened the Wikipedia page and started reading it out. "'Richard Speight Jr., born September 4, 1970, is an American actor, director, screenwriter and producer' - wow, this guy's been busy - 'who is known for a variety of roles including CBS TV series _Jericho_ and _T_ _he Agency_ , and the HBO miniseries _Band of Brothers_. Speight plays a recurring role, the Archangel Gabriel, originally thought to be a "Trickster" or Loki, in the WB/CW series _Supernatural_.' Well, thank you, Wikipedia."

"Great, we know who he is, can we move on now?"

"Won't you look at that, 'Spouse: Jared Padalecki'. The height difference's gotta be hilarious. He's a lot older though, why would you do that?"

"He can't be that much older," Sam retorted, even though he had no idea why he was even playing defense here.

"Thirteen years."

"Maybe Jared's older than me."

Dean scrolled down and clicked his alter ego's name. "He is. One year," he commented sarcastically.

"Okay, so what if he is? I bet Misha's older than Jensen too!" Sam said, a bit offended.

His brother moved to the two men's pages. "Yeah, four years, which is normal. Seriously, the guy was probably already jerking off when you were still in diapers."

"One, Jared's not me - again - and two, who even cares about age if you- How does any of this even- Why are we having this conversation?!"

"Hey, I'm just saying, out of all the guys you could've picked..."

Sam rolled his eyes and gritted his teeth in frustration. "Okay, you know what, this is ridiculous. Fine, I married a man who's thirteen years older than me. Can we now please move on?"

"You're the one who wanted to check him out," Dean shrugged.

"I didn't want to check-"

"Oh hey, look at this. Apparently he's best friends with some other _Supernatural_ actor named Rob Benedict. Wanna see who it is?"

Sam sighed and lent back in his chair. He couldn't even bother to care anymore. "Sure."

Dean clicked the name. "Oh god..."

That remark made Sam look at the screen again and his eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Literally," he huffed.

"They also mention this guy named Matt Cohen, you wanna-"

"Okay, stop," Sam interrupted and took the computer from him. This way it was gonna take ages before they actually got to researching. "What else should we know about?"

Dean was a bit annoyed but answered nevertheless. "There's supposed to be something going on this weekend?"

"Right," Sam nodded before starting to type their names and this weekend's dates.

When he pressed 'enter', the screen filled itself with hits, the first one already being pretty obvious.

"A _convention_?" Dean asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, it's a social event, usually about-"

"I know what a convention is, Sam, why the hell does this show have one?"

Sam shrugged. "From the looks of it, it's got a pretty steady fanbase, even after all the years. They're all over the country."

Dean just shook his head. "Seriously though, why would anyone wanna watch a show about two miserable brothers?"

"No idea," Sam admitted. "I really have no idea."

"So how are we gonna get out of it?"

"What do you mean?" Sam frowned.

His brother gave him a confused look. "You do realize we can't actually go to that thing, right?"

Sam nearly laughed just out of shock alone but from the looks of it, Dean was actually being serious. "Dean, people paid hundreds of dollars for this thing!"

"Well yeah, that's not really our problem," Dean admitted.

"How can you say that, it's important to _them_."

Dean raised his hands. "I know, alright? I know but, Sam, we're not the people they're coming to see!"

"So? We'll pretend. We've managed this far," Sam objected.

"You don't remember from last time that we're literally the worst actors to have ever been on TV? Plus, this isn't just something we can talk ourselves out of, these are fans that have been following Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki for years. They'll be asking questions we don't know the answers to and expecting things we know nothing about."

Sam knew his brother had a pretty good point there but he couldn't help feeling bad for their supposed fans. "We'll see if we can find a way out later, okay?"

"Fine," Dean sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "Come on, let's see if there are any more surprises we should know about."

It turned out there were quite a few. They discovered West and Maison Collins were Misha's children from his previous marriage with a woman named Vicki Vantoch. Apparently they'd split up pretty peacefully when Misha and Jensen finally admitted their feelings after years of working together. There was a lot of gossip about the situation but it seemed like Misha and Vicki were still close friends. Dean frowned at that. He didn't know why.

They found out GISH was some international contest/scavenger hunt that Misha'd invented. Even after scrolling through the website and reading articles about it, Sam and Dean still couldn't say what exactly it was about though. Seriously, there had been a campaign to save unicorns?

Oh, and apparently Misha and Jensen had changed their last names when they got married.

"Collins-Ackles?" Sam laughed.

Dean looked insulted. "What's wrong with that? Come on, the guy couldn't have exactly named himself Misha Ackles-Collins, that's just a tongue twister."

Sam shrugged. "Might as well have just gone for Cockles," he muttered.

"What?"

He cleared his throat. "Nothing. What's next?"

Unfortunately, they couldn't find any clues on how to get home. There had been no sightings of anything strange or even remotely nearing the supernatural. No suspicious activities or weird behavior. (Well, except for their own maybe.)

They were just trying to learn a bit more about Jared and Jensen when the door to the trailer slammed open. Sam and Dean jumped and out of instinct went for their guns, which they didn't have on them anymore of course.

Gabriel - or Richard, whatever - was standing in the doorway. "Guys, what the hell?!" he exclaimed in shock. "We need to start recording in five and you're not even dressed yet!"

"Uh," Dean said smartly. "Sorry, Ga- Richard. We could... go now?"

Richard looked at him like he'd gone crazy and spread his arms. "Well, what are you waiting for?!"

Dean quickly nodded. "Right." He headed for the door, Sam closely behind, when Richard stopped them.

"Jared? Can we talk for a moment?"

The brothers exchanged a look before Sam turned his eyes to the smaller man. "Uhm yeah, sure," he said, feeling a lot more insecure than he hoped he was letting on.

Dean looked between the two of them but after a reassuring nod from his brother, he headed out anyway. It didn't matter he didn't like it, there wasn't exactly much he could about it. So he decided he'd better try to find out where clothes and make-up were done. _That freaking make-up again..._

As soon as the door closed, Richard put a step closer to Sam and squinted his eyes. "Is something wrong?"

 _Crap, crap, crap, crap._ "No," Sam tried.

Richard lifted an eyebrow and even with the glasses and the cap and the beard it was so... Gabriel. "You sure? 'Cause you acted pretty weird before and now you guys are ridiculously late... By the way, where were you last night? I went home this morning to take a decent shower and change but the place looked like you hadn't even been there at all."

Finally, a question he knew the answer to. "Oh yeah no, I uhm... I stayed with De- Jensen and Misha. It was pretty late, we'd all had too much wine and they offered, so..."

Immediately Richard's expression softened and he sighed, taking another step towards him. "Why didn't you call me? I mean, I know I've been busy but I could've quickly come by to pick you up..."

"Sorry," Sam shrugged, back to not knowing what to say. "Didn't wanna... bother you or something..."

And that's when Richard closed the space between them and Sam's heart skipped a beat out of surprise. "You know you're never bothering me, Mr. Padalecki," the other man said, back with the eyebrows and Sam had to swallow back a lump in his throat. Before he got even the smallest chance to recover, Richard grabbed him by the collar, pulled him down and crashed their lips together.

To say Sam was shocked would have been the understatement of the dimension.

He froze in place, who knew for how long, before his brain decided to do its job again and he realized he should probably do something. The thing was he was supposed to be Jared. Richard's husband. Who would totally not freeze or freak out at something as normal and simple as a kiss. That meant Sam had only one option left, really, and that was to just go with it.

So... he went with it.

Carefully at first, he allowed himself to relax into the kiss. It took him a couple of seconds but then he pressed his lips against the other man's. It was different from any other kiss he'd ever had - especially the beard - and yet for some reason he didn't mind. Without thinking about it, he was suddenly sliding his hands around Richard's waist, and he was surprised to find that all of... _this_ didn't even really bother him. Dean'd been right, the height difference was kinda ironic but at the same time Sam found something quite enjoyable about it.

Yep, he definitely shouldn't be thinking of Gabriel's actor that way.

When Richard finally pulled away from him, there was a playful sparkle in the guy's eyes that reminded Sam even more of the archangel. Okay, he really had to stop thinking about Gabriel. Seriously. The guy was dead. This time final. End of story. And since when was Sam his biggest fan anyway? Sure, in the end Gabriel had been on their side. But the angel had pulled a lot of crap too. Sam had forgiven him for that a long time ago but that didn't explain why he didn't mind kissing his spitting image.

Richard smiled up at him. In the heat of the moment, his cap had gotten slightly pushed back on his head. "Well, whatever it is that has gotten into you, if this is your way of apologizing, it can stay."

And now Sam was blushing too. _Great._

"Now, how about you and that pretty, little ass of yours go find Jensen so we can start shooting in ten, and then we'll finish this... _tonight_." And then he slapped Sam's ass and walked out of the trailer.

Sam didn't think he'd ever fled this fast. And in his line of work, that was saying a lot.

When he finally found Dean at the make-up department, his brother wasn't looking happy. As soon as he noticed the shock on Sam's face though, his eyes turned worried and started towards him.

"What is it?" he asked in a demanding voice.

Sam would be damned if he told him what had happened between Richard and him, so instead he decided to focus on the one thing that might actually be of use to them. "Richard. Maybe I'm being paranoid but he is too... Gabriel."

Dean frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I mean," Sam said, dropping his voice since there were still crew members around, "there is no way an actor and his character are so much like each other. He is witty and sarcastic and outgoing and... way too sexualized."

The other Winchester pulled up an eyebrow at that. "Where'd you get that from?"

He wasn't stupid. He didn't miss the slight fluster that suddenly appeared on Sam's face, he just told himself he'd probably rather not know. Sam was a big boy, he could handle himself.

"Doesn't matter," Sam was quick to say. "Point is, what if..." He sighed. He knew this was gonna sound ridiculous. "What if Richard somehow _is_ Gabriel?"

"But Gabriel is dead," Dean shrugged.

"What if he isn't?" Sam urged. In only a few minutes, his mind had gone over this again and again and again. "What if he's somehow still alive? Or his grace ended up in this universe instead of the Empty? Maybe he doesn't even know who he is anymore and just ended up taking Richard as a vessel or something!"

Dean quickly raised his hands. "Whoa there, Sammy, that's a lot of assumptions, not to mention crazy. Why is it so impossible that they just act alike?"

His brother shook his head and frustratedly ran a hand through his hair. Why couldn't Dean see all of this was too suspicious? "It's just... too much of a coincidence, Dean! Think about it, last time we were here, we didn't even know Rich existed and now I'm married to him?"

"Okay, you are reading way too much into this," Dean stopped him. "Obviously I wasn't married to Cas last time either! This place is just different from last time, alright? Which means that instead of focusing on dead archangels, we should be trying to find a way out of here as fast as we can."

"But..."

"Nope, no 'but's. You wanna know if something strange is going on with this Richard guy? Fine, let's ask." And without further ado he took out his phone and started scrolling through Jensen's contacts.

Sam watched him with a confused frown. "What are you doing?"

Instead of answering, Dean pressed 'call' and waited for the person he'd been looking for to pick up. He didn't have to wait very long.

 _"Hey, babe,"_ Ca- Misha's voice greeted him. _"Everything okay over there?"_

"Oh, yeah, fine, I uhm..." Why was it that Dean's brain seemed to stop working every time he was talking to his supposed husband? "I was just wondering about something. You don't happen to know if uh, Richard has been acting a bit off lately, right?"

 _'What are you doing?'_ Sam mouthed at him, so Dean rolled his eyes and put the phone on speaker.

 _"Uhm... no? What do you mean?"_ Misha asked, sounding even more confused than Sam felt.

Dean tried to sound casual. "Oh, you know... Just a bit different from usual?"

_"Why? Did something happen? Where's Jared? This sounds like something you should ask him."_

"Yeah, he's around here somewhere," Dean said, deciding not to mention Sam was eavesdropping. Misha was his husband, maybe he'd tell Dean something he wouldn't be comfortable saying otherwise. "Everything's alright, don't worry. I was just thinking... Have you ever, I don't know, noticed that Rich can actually be a lot like... Gabriel?"

_"Gabriel?"_

"The character."

 _"Oh, that Gabriel!"_ Misha laughed fondly. _"You're only thinking of that now? Honey, do I need to remind you of basically every time we were ever with him? I mean come on, his sense of humor alone. And if there's one thing we learned from the whole Dick chat thing, it's that Rich can be just as annoying if he wants to."_

Sam and Dean exchanged a questioning look. _'Dick chat?'_ Sam mouthed and Dean just shrugged.

_"Oh and hey, remember he once mentioned on a panel that his song would be "The Joker"? If that doesn't cut it, I don't know what does... So yeah, I guess if you want to look at it that way, you could say Rich is basically Gabriel with a love for country music. But that just makes sense, I guess. After all, Gabriel wouldn't be Gabriel without him."_

"Yeah, you're right, thanks," Dean quickly said. Now that he had what he wanted, there was no reason to waste anymore time.

For a couple of seconds the other end of the line remained silent. Then Misha suddenly said, _"Can't believe this is what you called me for."_ There was a curious undertone in his voice that Dean didn't know how to deal with.

After multiple attempts of opening his mouth and answer, he eventually blurted out the one reasonable excuse he could think of. "Maybe I just wanted to hear your voice."

Sam choked on air and had to press a hand against his mouth to muffle a snort. Dean just closed his eyes and knew he was never gonna hear the end of this. Before Misha got a chance to answer and make this situation even more uncomfortable, he turned off speaker mode and brought the phone back to his ear. He was only just in time.

_"Hey, with you, I'm never complaining, baby."_

Dean gulped, hastily rushed out, "Yeah okay, gotta go, see you later, bye," and ended the call.

His little brother was looking at him way too amusedly, so Dean gave him a glare. "Shut up," he grumbled, pocketing his phone before he started to walk away. "Come on! We have some acting to do."


End file.
